.: What’s Bruin :.

Verse 1:
There must be more than this
oh breath of God come breathe within
There must be more than this
Spirit of God we wait for you
Fill us anew we pray
Fill us anew we pray

Chorus:
Consuming Fire
Fan into flame
a passion for your name
Spirit of God
fall in this place
Lord have Your way
Lord have Your way
with us

Verse 2:
Come like a rushing wind
Fill us with power from on high
Now set the captives free
leave us abandoned to your praise
Lord let your glory fall
Lord let your glory fall

(repeat chorus)

Tim Hughes

These are the words to a worship song we sang in church this weekend. God brought it to my mind this morning on the way to work, which was kind of puzzling to me since before today, I didn’t really like this song too much. It’s been on my mind throughout the day. So on the way to work I asked God to reveal to me why he put this song on my heart today. After dinner I listened to it; strangely, I liked it.

On the way to my photography class tonight, I prayed to God to show me why this song. Why this song, Lord? When he gave me my answer in the car as I was listening to it, I understood. And it brought tears of supplication, even anguish. Below, I’ve italicized the words that God placed on my heart to change this song into my prayer:

Verse 1:
There must be more than this
oh breath of God come breathe in him
There must be more than this
Spirit of God we wait for you
Fill him anew we pray
Fill him anew we pray

Chorus:
Consuming Fire
Fan into flame
a passion for your name
Spirit of God
fall in this place
Lord have Your way
Lord have Your way
with him

Verse 2:
Come like a rushing wind
Fill him with power from on high
Now set the captive free
leave us abandoned to your praise
Lord let your glory fall
Lord let your glory fall

(repeat chorus)

So Jesus, I cry out tonight, right now, fill us anew; fill him anew I pray. Consuming fire ignite a passion in his heart. Draw near to him and overwhelm him. Call him to yourself.

Tags: Pourpa, Prayer, Spiritual, Worship

I was reading WWDN earlier and I came across this article.

I emailed the person referenced, asking him to send me the information I need to see if I could be a donor match. I’ve taken the liberty to quote the email in its entirety below:

Thank you so much for writing. If you’re responding to my email about Christine’s urgent search for a bone marrow donor, this email is for you:

There are many ways you can help:

HOST A DRIVE:

It’s easy! Next time you’re gathering 8 or more Filipino friends together (at your business, home, school, church, party, local firehall etc), let the NMDP know and you can all sign up together. If you’d like to do something like this you can contact:

Susan Podolsky
National Marrow Donor Program
612-884-8567
spodolsk@nmdp.org

They will come to you for free. It’s like having a party, except you’re saving lives.

Please make sure to tell them that the drive is for Christine Pechera. This assures that they will expedite processing of all the samples to help Christine find a match in time.

REGISTER AS A DONOR:

You can also register as an individual by going to a local donor center or bone marrow drive. To find a location in your area, contact:

1-800-MARROW2

Remember to tell them you’re a friend of Christine Pechera when you call and again when you register to make sure Christine gets your info in time.

You can update us about what you’re doing at this website:

www.ChristinePechera.com

HELP WITH FUNDRAISING:

We’re currently in the process of setting up a foundation so that you can make a tax deductible gift to help Christine. If you would like to help out with fundraising, please contact:

jacobkrueger@gmail.com

SPREAD THE WORD:

We’ve completed a worldwide search of the donor registry and still not turned up a match for Christine. We estimate that we need to register 20,000 new Filipino donors to find a single person who matches her bone marrow type. We need your help, and the help of your friends. So please, talk to everyone you know. Get them registered. Help them set up a drive. Christine’s donor is out there. We need your help.

Your help means so much. Please let me know if there’s anything you need.

Jake

Tags: Announcements, bone-marrow, bone-marrow-transplant, cancer, Filipino, Health

He was a man whose masculinity rested

–not in what he owned
–not in the size of his home
–not in the amount of his investments
–not in what he could perform
–not in what he could achieve
–not in people he knew
–not ini what model of donkey he rode
–not in his status in the community.

Job proved himself quite apart from the decorations and tributes and trophies and newspaper clippings. Job sourced his masculinity and personhood in who he was, alone and naked before God. And that makes a man out of you.

Stu Weber, Tender Warrior : God’s Intention for a Man, pp. 56-57

Tags: Books, Christian, faith, Prayer, Reflection, Spiritual, Tender-Warrior

Last Wednesday we received our second assignment in Photo class: “Color as Subject”. I have to submit four photographs from the following categories:

• Color Harmony
• Color Contrast
• Monochromatic
• Spot Color
• Color that evokes a mood or emotional response
• Color as Subject

What does all of that mean? Beats me. The teacher showed us some cool examples, but did not leave the files on the public server so we can review them again later. I wish he would; it’s not like anyone is going to copy some picture and say it was theirs, especially if it was used in class as a model.

Anyways, I could have used some of my Greece photos to satisfy probably all of the assignment requirements, but the teacher said he wants us to use current photos. He did, however, say that if I had a “killer” photo from the past, then I could use it for this assignment.

So last night after church, Josephine and I went to the Mission Valley Mall because I had heard from Andrew that there was a carnival there. He had taken a picture of this ferris wheel and I thought that this would be good for this particular assignment.

Mission Valley Ferris Wheel
I may use this one because you can see some of the details of the wheel

In addition to this shot, I took several color-related photos throughout the day.

Lensbaby Flower
I may use this one because of the unique blurring of the colors

I even woke up a little after 6 AM this morning to catch the sunrise overlooking the valley from the top of Cal State San Marcos. But I think I missed the best part of the sunrise. I did catch the moon as it was disappearing from the horizon.

Moon Over Horizon
This one may be good if I end up reddening the moon and darkening the sky to a purple color

For the first time, I shot in RAW. After looking at the RAW pictures for myself, I don’t think I will want to shoot in JPG mode ever again. RAW mode just looks so much cleaner. Unfortunately, it takes up a lot of memory since it’s a 16-bit shot instead of 8 bits. So if I shoot completely RAW, I can take up to 219 photos at ISO 200 on my 2 GB compact flash card. If I include a large, fine JPG with the shot, I can take up to 153 photos at ISO 200 on the card. These quantities should be fine except when I travel; I’ll need a higher capacity card at that time if I shoot in RAW.

Whoa, I totally geeked out there on photography.

So here’s a batch of originals for this assignment. Hopefully, I can get some guidance tomorrow night on which ones here are usable. I’m sure I’ll have to shoot more before the assignment is due (Feb 27).

Tags: color, color-as-subject, education_and_training, Palomar-College, PHOTO-150, Photography

James 1:17

Tags: .Mac, Apple, CoolPix , family, iCards, Josephine_Bruin, love

Thinking of You

Tags: .Mac, Apple, CoolPix , family, iCards, love, Pourpa

I’m trying a 60-day free trial of .Mac. I’m not sure I would really use it. You can use the following features:

• Publish on the Web
• Store files on iDisk
• Photocasting
• Backup files
• Social networking Groups
• Email

The best one is the .mac web-based email because I can check it at work, where all web-based email account access is blocked by the network.

It might be worth the cost just for this capability. Currently, I have forwarded my Gmail there so I can check my personal mail. I can also access Cox email via POP since Cox does not allow forwarding of their mail automatically.

Tags: .Mac, Announcements, Apple, email, geek_stuff

This is a test of the WordPress feature to post a blog by sending an
email message. Hope it works.

Update: Obviously since I’m editing this here. It worked! Looks like if I use this feature, I will have to edit the post author, insert tags manually, and add/change the categories manually.

Tags: Blogging, email, geek_stuff, quick_links, WordPress

I read about this weblog editor from ranchero.com. So far it seems pretty easy to use. It’s a blend between WYSIWYG and hard coding in that I can see the codes being inserted, but I don’t need to type them in myself. I can preview the new post in a preview thingy.

So far I can’t really tell I figured out how to assign a category to this post, or whether or but I’m not sure I can assign tags that are compatible with the Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin.

I’ll try it for a bit and see how it goes.

Update: So far this is way better than Ecto. But I’m bummed that I have to add my tags manually back in the WordPress interface. And I think that if I re-edit a post that was previously created or edited in WordPress, the tags that are not also categories get erase if I publish the edited post via MarsEdit.

My initial impression after just a few minutes: I really like MarsEdit, but I dislike having to edit my tags manually. I would like to continue to use this blogging software, so maybe I will try editing my posts and then just adding the additional non-category tags later when I am fully satisfied with my writing and am sure that I won’t need to edit the post in MarsEdit anymore. Or if I feel that an older post needs more editing, I could just edit solely in the WordPress interface so that I won’t have to re-enter the tags that got erased.

Tags: Blogging, geek_stuff, MarsEdit, WordPress

Act your way into a feeling; don’t feel your way into an action.

Dear Pourpa,

I can’t tell you how many times I heard that at UCLA from my spiritual father and mentor, Dennis. I don’t think I liked hearing it too much and boy did he say it often. When we would walk towards an unsuspecting “engineer” on South Campus eating his lunch on a small patch of grass near the building that was then only called Young Hall before the whole grandiose “Court of Sciences” nomenclature, and before we engaged him in spiritual conversation, I shuddered in timidity. I can still hear Dennis saying, “Act your way into a feeling . . .” The eternal destination of a lost soul hung in the balance. When I expressed frustration with my parents, struggling to extend God’s grace and forgiveness, I heard it. And though I have not seen Dennis in almost 10 years, I have still heard that saying in the last few months, speaking God’s truth to me concerning my attitude and actions:

Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.

Jesus, John 14:21

Almost five days ago I believe you and I had a pivotal conversation. It is not a coincidence that the prayers being offered up on your behalf led us to that point in time. Providence is the only word that can describe it. As powerful as Providence is, God created us with free will, so we can choose how we respond. No matter the situation, whenever we are confronted with the claims and truths of God, he demands a response, either obedience to his call and purpose or disobedience.

Ignoring these claims and truths is also a response, one of passive indifference, which is ultimately disobedience. I believe that you’ve reached this point of response based on what we talked about last Monday. Christ is calling.

As I been thinking and praying about this, I asked the Lord to bring to my mind something pertinent from his Word. This morning as I was driving to work, he brought to my memory the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3-9). Please take the time to read it before going on with the rest of this letter.
(more…)

Tags: accountability, Bible Study, Christian, communion, faith, fellowship, Life, Pourpa, Pourpa_Letters, Prayer, sharing, Spiritual

Windmills on Chios

Tags: Chios, CoolPix , Greece, Photography, Travels, windmills

For some Christmas gifts, I made some calendars through costco.com of some our favorite and best photos of the trip to Greece. Featured below is the January 2006 photo.

My Big Fat Greek Family

Tags: CoolPix , family, Greece, Photography, Travels

Then stick with it.

To my favorite player:

Andy, Andy, Andy . . .

What’s the deal? Brad Gilbert gets the Donald Trump nod; Dean Goldfine gets the Donald Trump nod. Next you’re gonna have to fire your own brother in a year, maybe two.

Personally, I have no idea why you didn’t stick with Brad Gilbert. C’mon now. He’s the coach that helped you get your one and only Grand Slam title at the 2003 US Open. He was able to bring Andre Agassi back to the pinnacle of the game after being ranked in the 100s, relegated to playing the satellite circuit and qualifiers.

You’ve worked yourself into a frenzy, physically. You’re noticeably different than when you won that lone title– bigger, stronger, and faster. But fundamentally, your backhand, return of serve, and net game are still liabilities.

You have a:

• Serve, but no net game (à la Pete Sampras).
• Serve, but no return (à la Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, and Björn Borg).
• Forehand, but your backhand is not a reliable secondary weapon (à Björn Borg).
• Lethal double-weapon combination of serve-forehand, but for some reason, you have not been able to put them together in the Big Ones like the greats before you.

So here’s some cheap advice from a nobody amateur tennis player:

Stop changing coaches and seriously change your game to shore up the weaknesses.

Tags: Commentary, Roddick, Sports, Tennis

Here are the results for my first assignment.

Tags: color-balance, education_and_training, Palomar-College, PHOTO-150, Photography, Will

I really like this chart. I don’t remember weighing less than this in many years. I’m looking forward to the new wardrobe that I already have in my closet, (older) clothes that I have not worn in years. Take that, Dr. Putnam!

Looking towards continued success . . .

The graph is based on the following data:

My results are based on the following regimen, which I did for the past week only from January 30 until now (compare to the first week when I did not follow this)–

Breakfast:
NuPlus (4 ounces soymilk, 4 ounces water)
bowl of cereal (4 - 6 ounces soymilk)

Lunch:
NuPlus (8 ounces soymilk)
Apple
Banana (sometimes substituted with orange)

Dinner:
NuPlus (4 ounces soymilk, 4 ounces water)
Regular dinner (low carb, low fat, ONE moderate size serving)

Tags: Health, Sunrider, weight, weight-loss